Sometimes too the unclean spirits attempt to terrify even the minds of the elect with the horrid images of dreams, and those whom they tempt while waking with vices but do not overcome, they fiercely assail while sleeping. Yet the saints, even if for a moment they be moved by such visions, soon, upon awaking, despise the emptiness of the delusions, and at once turn their attention back to God. The kinds of dreams are diverse. For some arise from fullness or from emptiness of the stomach, which are also known by experience. But some arise from one's own thought; for often what we think of by day, we recognize again at night. Some visions, however, are wrought by the delusion of unclean spirits, as Solomon attests:
'Dreams,' he says, 'and vain delusions have caused many to err.' Moreover, some dreams occur in a righteous manner, that is, by the mystery of heavenly revelation, as we read in the Law concerning Joseph the son of Jacob, who by a dream is foretold to be set above his brothers; or as in the Gospel concerning Joseph the spouse of Mary, who is admonished by a dream to flee with the child into Egypt. Sometimes too there come mingled visions, that is, from thought together with delusion, and likewise from thought and revelation, as Daniel says: 'Thou, O king,' he says, 'didst begin to think upon thy bed what should come to pass hereafter; and he who revealeth mysteries showed thee the things that are to come.'
For indeed those things upon which we stretch the sense of our thoughts are often revealed by a certain ecstasy of mind while we rest. Although some dreams are true, yet they must not easily be believed, because they arise from diverse qualities of imagination, and whence they come is rarely considered. Therefore faith is not so easily to be given to dreams, lest perchance Satan, transforming himself into an angel of light, deceive some unwary person and beguile him by some fraud of error. Sometimes indeed demons by deceptive fraud so delude certain curious and observant persons that certain dreams come to pass exactly as they are shown. For, in order to deceive in many things, they sometimes announce even true things.
But although they come to pass thus, they are to be despised, lest perchance they proceed from delusion, remembering the testimony of Scripture which says: 'If they shall say to you, and it come to pass, believe them not.' Dreams are like auguries, and those who heed them are truly known to practice augury. Those dreams are not true which the mind, thinking by day and night, imagines to itself; for minds sometimes fashion dreams for themselves. Often, while by sad remembrance we recall to ourselves former evils and the punishment of hell, imaginations of this kind of the mind, whether about past deeds committed or about future punishments, arise in the memory of the waking, and occur through visions and dreams, and shake the minds of those who ponder them.
For both come about by the force of memory, whether we be waking or sleeping. For by such a warning of the mind we are shaken even in our rest with horrible dread, and how grave are the things we have committed, and how hard the things we dread, we contemplate with the mind's gaze even in dreams. It is no sin when we are deluded against our will by nocturnal images; but there is sin if, before we are deluded, we are preoccupied by the affections of thought. For the images of lust which we have enacted in reality often appear to the mind of those sleeping, but harmlessly, if they occur without our desiring them.
He who is defiled by nocturnal delusion, although he perceive himself polluted apart from the remembrance of any shameful thoughts, nevertheless let him ascribe to the fault of his own guilt that he was thus tempted, and let him at once wipe away his uncleanness with weeping. VII. On Prayer. This is the remedy of him who is inflamed by the temptations of the vices: that as often as he is touched by any vice, so often he submit himself to prayer, because frequent prayer extinguishes the assault of the vices. We ought to fix our mind so perseveringly in praying and knocking, until, by a most strong intention, we overcome the importunate suggestions of carnal desires which clamor against our senses, and to persist so long, until by persisting we conquer.
For those who are negligent in their prayers are not even able to obtain from man himself what they wish. When anyone prays, he calls the Holy Spirit to himself. But when He has come, at once the temptations of the demons, which plunge themselves into human minds, unable to bear His presence, take flight. Prayer is of the heart, not of the lips. For God does not attend to the words of him who prays, but looks upon the heart of the one praying. And if the heart pray silently and the voice be still, though it be hidden from men, it cannot be hidden from God, who is present to the conscience. It is better, moreover, to pray in silence with the heart without the sound of the voice, than with words alone without the attention of the mind. Never is one to pray without a groan, for the recollection of sins begets sorrow.
For while we pray, we bring our guilt back to memory, and then we recognize ourselves the more to be guilty. Therefore, when we stand before God, we ought to groan and weep, remembering how grave are the crimes we have committed, and how dreadful the punishments of hell which we fear. Such as the mind offers itself in prayer, such let it keep itself after prayer. For prayer profits nothing if that be committed again for which pardon is already sought. For he without doubt receives the desired effect of his petition, who does not repeat by transgressing that which he asks by praying to be washed away. Our mind is heavenly, and then it contemplates God well in praying, when it is hindered by no earthly cares or errors. For by its own nature it is fit for good, but in what is alien to it, it is disturbed.
That prayer is pure into whose proper time the cares of the world do not intrude; but far from God is the soul that in prayer has been occupied with the thoughts of the world. Then, therefore, do we truly pray, when we think of nothing else. But very few there are who have such prayers. And although in some they may exist, yet it is difficult that they should always exist. The mind which before prayer, being empty of God, is occupied with unlawful thoughts, when it has come into prayer, at once the images of the things it lately thought of meet it, and block the approach of prayer, so that the mind cannot freely raise itself to heavenly desire.
Therefore the soul must first be purged, and separated from the thoughts of temporal things, so that the pure gaze of the heart may be directed to God truly and simply. For in truth we believe that divine gifts are then to be obtained, when with simple affection we stand before Him as we pray. In many ways the intention of prayer is interrupted, while through carelessness the vanities of the world thrust themselves into the mind of anyone praying. But then the more does the devil thrust the thoughts of worldly cares into human minds, when he has seen a man praying. In two ways prayer is hindered, so that one cannot obtain his requests: that is, if either one still commits evils, or if he does not forgive the one who trespasses against him what is owed.
When anyone has wiped away this twofold evil from himself, straightway secure he applies himself to the zeal of prayer, and freely raises his mind to those things which he desires to obtain by his prayers. He who is injured, let him not cease to pray for those who injure him; otherwise, according to the Lord's sentence, he sins who does not pray for his enemies. Just as no medicine profits in a wound if the iron still be in it, so the prayer of him profits nothing in whose mind grief still remains, or hatred abides in the breast. So great ought to be the affection of the one praying toward God, that he despair not of the effect of his petition. But we pray in vain, if we have not the confidence of hope.
Let each one therefore ask, as the Apostle says, in faith, doubting nothing; for he who doubts is like a wave of the sea, which is driven by the wind and dispersed. Distrust of obtaining what is prayed for is born, if the soul yet feels itself to be engaged around the affection of sinning. For he cannot have sure confidence in prayer who is still slothful in the precepts of God, and delights in the recollections of sin. He who turns away from the precepts of God does not merit what he asks in prayer, nor does he obtain from Him the good which he requests, whose law he does not obey. For if we do what God commands, without doubt we obtain what we ask. For as it is written: 'He who turns away his ear that he may not hear the law, his prayer shall be an abomination.'
Both are of necessity mutually commended before God, that operation be strengthened by prayer, and prayer by work. Whence also Jeremiah says: 'Let us lift up our hearts with our hands to God.' For he lifts up his heart with his hands who supports his prayer with work. For whoever prays and does not work, lifts up his heart and lifts not his hands. But whoever works and does not pray, lifts up his hands and lifts not his heart. But because it is necessary both to work and to pray, well is it said concerning both: 'Let us lift up our hearts with our hands to God,' lest we be reproved in heart for the neglect of the commandments, while we strive to obtain our salvation either by prayer alone or by work alone.
After we have done a good work, let the tears of prayers be poured forth, that the humility of prayer may obtain the merit of the action. Culpably does he spread out his hands to God who boastfully displays his deeds by praying, as the Pharisee prayed boastfully in the temple, and wished to praise himself rather than God for his just works. The prayer of some is turned into sin, as is written of Judas the traitor. For he who prays boastfully, seeking human praise, not only does his prayer not blot out sin, but the very prayer is turned into sin. Just so the Jews or the heretics, who, although they may seem to fast and pray, yet their prayer profits them not unto the merit of purification, but is rather changed into sin.
Therefore sometimes the prayer of the elect is deferred in their afflictions, that the perversity of the impious may be increased. But when the righteous are heard for a time, it is done for the salvation of those who afflict them, so that, while these are aided by a temporal remedy, the eyes of the wicked may be opened to conversion. Whence also the fire was cold for the three youths, that Nebuchadnezzar might acknowledge the true God. As also the prophet says in the Psalms: 'Because of my enemies deliver me.' Accordingly the prayers of some are more slowly heard, so that, while they are deferred, being more strongly stirred up, they may be heaped up with greater rewards: after the example of the frosts and the holding back of the harvests, in which the more slowly the sown seeds come forth, so much the more abundantly do they grow to fruit.
As often as, praying, we are not quickly heard, let us set our own deeds before our eyes, so that this very thing, that we are deferred, may be reckoned to divine justice and to our own fault. Sometimes the fact that, praying perseveringly, we are not quickly heard, is for our benefit, not our adversity. For often God does not hear many according to their will, that He may hear them according to their salvation. Many who pray are not heard, God providing for them better things than they ask, as is wont to happen with little children, who, that they may not be beaten in school, entreat God. But the effect of their petition is not granted them, because such a hearing hinders their advancement. Not otherwise does it happen to certain of the elect: for they beseech God concerning some conveniences of this life, or adversities.
But divine Providence in no way heeds their desire in temporal matters, because it promises them better things for eternity. Prayer is more fittingly poured forth in private places, and more effectively obtains its aim, when it is uttered with God alone as witness. But it is proper to hypocrites to present themselves in prayer before those who see; whose fruit is not to please God, but to procure glory from men. Men are not heard by God in much speaking, as though they strove to bend Him by very many words. For it is not the manifold speech of the one praying that wins Him over, but the pure and sincere intention of prayer. It is good always to pray with the heart; it is good also to glorify God with the sound of the voice in spiritual hymns.
It is nothing to sing with the voice alone without the intention of the heart; but, as the Apostle says: 'Singing in your hearts,' that is, chanting not only with the voice but with the heart. Whence also elsewhere: 'I will sing with the spirit, I will sing also with the mind.' As we are governed by prayers, so we are delighted by the pursuit of the psalms. For the usefulness of psalm-singing consoles sad hearts, makes minds more gracious, delights the weary, arouses the sluggish, and invites sinners to lamentation. For although carnal hearts be hard, as soon as the sweetness of the psalm has sounded, it bends their soul to the affection of piety.
Although it be the divine words which are spoken there, and not the modulation of the voice, that ought to move a Christian, yet somehow by the modulation of the singer a greater compunction of heart is born. For many are found who, moved by the sweetness of song, bewail their crimes, and are the more bent to tears from that quarter whence the most delightful sweetness of the singer has sounded. Prayer is poured forth for the remedy of sins in the present life only; but the chanting of psalms shows forth the perpetual praise of God unto eternal glory, as it is written: 'Blessed are they that dwell in thy house, for ever and ever they shall praise thee.' Whoever performs the ministry of this work faithfully and with an attentive mind, is in a certain manner associated with the angels.
VIII. On Reading. By prayers we are cleansed, by readings we are instructed; both are good, if it be allowed; if it be not allowed, it is better to pray than to read. He who wishes always to be with God ought frequently to pray, and frequently to read. For when we pray, we ourselves speak with God; but when we read, God speaks with us. All progress proceeds from reading and meditation. For what we know not, we learn by reading; and what we have learned, we preserve by meditations. The reading of the Holy Scriptures confers a twofold gift, whether because it instructs the understanding of the mind, or because, having drawn man away from the vanities of the world, it leads him to the love of God.
For often, stirred by its word, we are withdrawn from the desire of worldly life, and, kindled in the love of wisdom, the vain hope of this mortality becomes cheap to us in proportion as, by reading, the eternal hope has shone forth more brightly. The study of reading is twofold: first, in what manner the Scriptures may be understood; second, with what usefulness or dignity they may be spoken. For each will first be ready to understand what he reads, and thereupon fit to set forth what he says. The diligent reader will be more ready to fulfill what he reads than to know it. For it is a lesser punishment not to know what you should seek, than not to fulfill the things you have come to know. For as by reading we long to know, so by knowing we ought to fulfill the right things we have learned.
The Law of God has both a reward and a punishment for those who read it. A reward in those who keep it by living well; but a punishment in those who despise it by living ill. Everyone who departs from the precepts of God in deed, as often as he can read or hear those same precepts of God, is confounded, reproved in his heart, because he is reminded of that which he does not do, and, his conscience being witness, is inwardly accused. Whence also the prophet David beseeches, saying: 'Then shall I not be confounded, when I look into all thy commandments.' For everyone is gravely confounded, when, either by reading or by hearing, he looks into the commandments of God which he despises by living. For he is reproved in heart, while he is taught by the meditation of the commandments, because he has not fulfilled in deed what he has learned by the divine command.
IX. On Constancy in Reading. No one can know the sense of Holy Scripture, except by familiarity with reading, as it is written: 'Love her, and she will exalt thee; thou shalt be glorified by her, when thou hast embraced her.' The more constant anyone is in the sacred discourses, the more abundant an understanding he takes from them; as the earth, which the more it is cultivated, so much the more abundantly does it bear fruit. The more a man ascends to any art, so much the more does that art itself descend to the man, as it is written in the Law: 'Moses ascended into the mountain, and the Lord descended.'
It is true concerning spiritual leisure, that he alone will search out the secrets of the divine commandments, who has called away his soul from the action of earthly care, and by diligent familiarity has clung to the Holy Scriptures. For as both a blind man and one who sees can indeed walk, but not with like freedom, since the blind man, going where he does not see, stumbles, but the seeing man avoids obstacles and knows whither he must go; so also he who is darkened by the cloud of earthly care, if he attempt to search out the mysteries of God, is not able, because through the mist of cares he does not see. Whereas he is able to accomplish just as much, who withdraws himself from the outward cares of the world, and fixes his whole self on the meditation of the Scriptures.
Some have the talent of understanding, but neglect the study of reading; and what they might have come to know by reading, they despise by neglecting. But some have the love of knowing, but are hindered by slowness of understanding; who nevertheless, by constant reading, come to know what the talented, through laziness, have not known. He who is slow of talent, though not by nature, yet by constancy of reading increases it. For although there be dullness of understanding, yet frequent reading imparts understanding. As he who is slow to grasp, yet on account of the intention of good zeal receives a reward, so he who neglects the talent of understanding bestowed on him by God, is found guilty of condemnation, because he despises the gift which he received, and forsakes it through laziness.
Some by the judgment of God receive the gift of knowledge which they neglect, that they may be more harshly punished for the things committed to them. But the slower ones therefore find with difficulty what they desire to know, that for the greatest exertion of labor they may have the greatest reward of recompense. X. On Doctrine Without Grace. Doctrine without the aid of grace, although it be poured into the ears, never descends to the heart; outwardly indeed it resounds, but inwardly it profits nothing. But then does the word of God, poured into the ears, reach to the depths of the heart, when the grace of God inwardly touches the mind, that it may understand. For just as God enlightens some with the flame of His love, that they may have a life-giving wisdom, so He deserts some, cold and torpid, that they may persist without understanding.
Very many are lively in the acuteness of understanding, but are straitened by poverty of speech. But some are strong in both, because they have both the abundance of knowing and the efficacy of speaking. XI. On Proud Readers. Very many use the knowledge of the Scriptures they have received not for the glory of God, but for their own praise, while they are exalted by that very knowledge, and sin there where they ought to have cleansed their sins. The arrogant never attain by reading to perfect knowledge. For although they may appear wise on the surface, yet in the marrow they do not touch the secrets of truth, because they are hindered by the cloud of pride. For the proud always read, seek, and never find.
The inmost recesses of the divine Law lie open to the humble and to those who enter well toward God; but to the depraved and proud they are closed. For although the divine oracles be open to the arrogant in the reading, yet in the mystery they are closed and hidden. While the word of God is light to the faithful, to the reprobate and proud it in a certain manner grows dark; and whence those are enlightened, thence these are blinded. XII. On Carnal Readers and Heretics. By no means does he understand the Law who runs through the words of the Law carnally, but he who beholds it with the sense of inner understanding. For those who attend to the letter of the Law cannot penetrate its hidden things.
For many, by not understanding the Scriptures spiritually, nor rightly perceiving them, have fallen into heresy and have drifted away into many errors. In the faithful alone is the Law bound up, the Lord attesting through the prophet: 'Seal the testimony, seal the law among my disciples,' that neither a Jew may understand it, nor a heretic, because he is not a disciple of Christ; for they do not follow the unity of peace which Christ taught, concerning which the same Lord says: 'By this shall they know that you are my disciples, if you have love among yourselves.' The heretics do not perceive the Scriptures with sound sense, but draw them to the error of depraved understanding;
nor do they subject themselves to the meaning of the Scriptures, but perversely drag them to their own error. Teachers of errors so entangle their hearers by the arguments of fraud through depraved persuasions, that they involve them as it were in a labyrinth, from which they can scarcely get out. So great is the cunning of heretics that they mingle false things with true and evil with good, and for the most part insert the poison of their error among wholesome things, so that they may the more easily persuade the depravity of a perverse dogma under the appearance of truth. For the most part heretics write their sayings under the name of catholic teachers, so that what is read may be believed without doubt.
Sometimes too they insert their blasphemies with hidden guile into the books of our teachers, and corrupt the true doctrine by adulterating it, namely either by adding things that are impious, or by taking away things that are pious. The things that are read must be pondered cautiously and tested with cautious judgment, so that, according to the apostolic admonitions, we may both hold fast what is right and refute what stands contrary to the truth, and so be instructed in good things that we may remain unharmed by evil ones. XIII. On the Books of the Gentiles. Therefore the Christian is forbidden to read the fictions of the poets, because through the delights of empty fables they excite the mind to the incitements of lusts. For not only by offering incense is sacrifice made to demons, but also by receiving their sayings more willingly.
Some take more delight in meditating on the sayings of the Gentiles because of their swelling and ornate speech, than on Holy Scripture because of its humble diction. But what does it profit to advance in worldly doctrines, and to grow empty in the divine? To follow perishable fictions, and to disdain the heavenly mysteries? Such books therefore are to be shunned, and to be avoided for the love of the Holy Scriptures. The sayings of the Gentiles outwardly gleam with the eloquence of words, but inwardly remain empty of the wisdom of virtue; but the sacred oracles outwardly appear unpolished in words, yet inwardly they shine with the wisdom of mysteries. Whence also the Apostle says: 'We have this treasure in earthen vessels.'
For indeed the word of God has a hidden splendor of wisdom and truth stored up in the meanest little vessels of words. Therefore the holy books were written in simple speech, that men might be led to faith not in the wisdom of word, but in the demonstration of the Spirit. For if they had been produced by the subtlety of dialectical acuteness, or the eloquence of the rhetorical art, in no way would the faith of Christ be thought to consist in the power of God, but in the arguments of human eloquence; nor should we believe that anyone was summoned to faith by divine inspiration, but rather seduced by the cunning of words.
All secular doctrine, resounding with foaming words, and lifting itself up through the swelling of eloquence, has been emptied by the simple and humble Christian teaching, as it is written: 'Hath not God made foolish the wisdom of this world?' To the fastidious and the loquacious the Holy Scriptures please less because of their simple speech; for compared with Gentile eloquence they seem to them unworthy. But if with a humble mind they attend to its mysteries, they at once perceive how exalted are the things which in them they despise. In reading, not the words but the truth is to be loved. But often a truthful simplicity is found, and a composed falsehood which entices a man by its errors and, through the ornaments of the tongue, scatters sweet snares.
The love of worldly knowledge does nothing else than exalt a man with praises. For the greater the studies of literature have been, the more the soul, puffed up with the pride of arrogance, swells with greater boastfulness. Whence also the psalm well says: 'Because I have not known learning, I will enter into the powers of the Lord.' To the simpler ones the paint of the grammatical art is not to be set forth. For common letters are better, because simpler, and pertaining only to the humility of the readers; but those others are worse, because they bring upon men a pernicious elation of mind. Grammarians are better than heretics; for the heretics offer men a draught of deadly juice by persuading them;
but the doctrine of grammarians can even profit unto life, when it has been taken up for better uses. XIV. On Conference. Since reading is useful for instruction, yet when conference is added it affords greater understanding; for it is better to confer than to read. Conference makes for teachableness; for by proposed questions the hesitation over matters is excluded, and often by objections the hidden truth is proved. For what is obscure or doubtful is quickly discerned by conferring. Figures are of much profit in conference. For things which are less noticed of themselves are easily grasped through the comparison of things. For often under another appearance the divine Scriptures intimate spiritual matters;
and unless by some evident demonstration, the hidden mysteries of the Law scarcely appear. As conference is wont to instruct, so contention destroys. For this, having abandoned the sense of truth, begets strife and, by fighting with words, even blasphemy against God. Thence come heresies and schism, by which faith is subverted, truth is corrupted, charity is torn asunder. The zeal of the contentious is contested not for truth but for the appetite of praise, and so great is the perversity in these, that they know not how to yield to truth, and strive to make void the very right doctrine. In the disputation of the faithful the artful subtlety of propositions is to be avoided, which spreads nets by crafty objections;